1. United States
2. Colo.
3. Letter

I am writing to demand immediate action to end the United States’ cruel economic war on Cuba. The Trump administration’s oil blockade is not policy sophistication. It is collective punishment. People’s World warned on February 23 that Congress must intervene to stop a “full-scale oil blockade” and the humanitarian crisis it is creating. Since then, Cuba has suffered a major blackout tied to fuel shortages and tightened U.S. pressure, with Reuters reporting that the grid collapse came as U.S. actions curtailed oil shipments. Students in Havana also staged a rare protest on March 9 over the worsening energy and internet crisis disrupting basic life and education. This suffering is not accidental. Jake Johnston warned on Democracy Now! that Cuba is being targeted as part of a broader U.S. strategy to reassert domination in Latin America through a revived “Monroe Doctrine” approach. That is exactly what this is: economic strangulation, coercion, and contempt for sovereignty dressed up as foreign policy. Congress must stop being complicit. I urge you to act now to: remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list; end the blockade; end the occupation of Guantánamo; respect Cuba’s sovereignty and stop all U.S. regime-change efforts; support H.R. 7521, which Rep. Jim McGovern introduced on February 12 to repeal the statutory basis for the embargo; support S. 136, the Senate companion bill; and support H.Res. 1056, the New Good Neighbor resolution to reject Monroe Doctrine aggression. For decades, U.S. policy toward Cuba has inflicted hardship on ordinary people while solving nothing. Now it is worsening blackouts, shortages, and instability and threatening even more suffering. This is immoral, unlawful, and indefensible. End the siege. End the blockade. Let Cuba live.